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That bastard! He punched me in the nose! How dare he do something so vile to a tender, young girl like me!

Her heart was filled with rage. She scanned her surroundings for him, but when she saw Su Chen her countenance changed. He walked over to her in an imposing matter, causing her to understand the situation she was in. She hid her jade tablet behind her hands and screamed, “I can give you the points. Just don’t shatter my jade tablet!”

Su Chen stopped, then aimed the long blade in his hand at Jin Ling’er. “Now you’re trying to negotiate with me? What were you doing before?”

A trace of rage flashed across Jin Ling’er’s eyes. “If it weren’t for the fact that you used despicable, underhanded means, do you think I’d be afraid of you?”

Su Chen shook his head. “You truly are the young miss of a noble clan. You don’t even know how to beg for mercy.”

He slammed the blunt end of the blade into Jin Ling’er’s back, sending her into the ground.

“YOU!” Jin Ling’er was infuriated. Today was the first day in her life someone dared to treat her in such a way.

Su Chen grabbed her by the throat, pointed at Pan Yue’s corpse, and said, “You’d best be clear about the situation you’re in. You’ll realize having your jade tablet shattered is not the scariest thing that can happen to you.”

Jin Ling’er’s heart trembled when she saw the corpse. “Y-you killed him?”

“You and I together did,” Su Chen corrected. “That Erupting Firebird was originally meant for you. But it isn’t important who killed who. What is important, is that right now, I have already offended a Bloodline Nobility Clan. I don’t care to offend another one. Are we clear?”

Jin Ling’er anger quickly turned into shock. Her heart trembled when she saw the cold mask and expressionless eyes. All she felt in this moment was terror.

The pain in her nose rose up again, the last straw to break the camel’s back, as she burst into tears.

Watching the tears run down the young girl’s cheeks, Su Chen was dazed.

He never expected for Jin Ling’er, the Bewitching Butterfly, one of the most powerful seedlings in this exam, would have such a weak side to her.

She was the very picture of a weeping beauty, softening the hearts of all who saw it. No trace of her might could be found right now.

Even Su Chen was somewhat uncomfortable. His heart, usually as hard as steel, softened.

He gently coughed and said, “Okay, don’t cry, I didn’t say I would kill you.”

His words seemed to have no effect. The tears still rolling down Jin Ling’er’s cheeks without end. Eventually she managed to ask, “Y-you won’t shatter my jade tablet? I can stay here?”

“If you promise not to bother me ever again,” Su Chen replied.

“How would I even bother you?” Jin Ling’er burbled. “It took me forever just to control someone from a Bloodline Nobility Clan, but he ran away because of you. That guy won’t let me get close to him again. Where will I find another weak-willed individual who’s that strong?”

“But you will definitely find one, right?” Su Chen laughed. “That is, if you’re not too picky with your food.”

Jin Ling’er rolled her eyes at him. “Alright, I swear on my Jin Clan’s bloodline I won’t bother you for the rest of the exam if you don’t shatter my jade tablet. In fact, I won’t ever bother you again, not even after the exam is over!”

“See? That wasn’t too hard, was it?” Su Chen retrieved his blade, then took away the points from Jin Ling’er’s jade tablet.

Jin Ling’er had a large number of points. Su Chen instantly earned a hundred sixty two points, giving him some pause as well. “That many?”

Jin Ling’er pouted. “If I had more, you would’ve just taken them anyways. Now it’s all ruined. Losing all those points, I definitely can’t enter the top 10 now.”

She looked like she was about to break down in tears yet again.

Su Chen hurriedly comforted her. “Hey, hey, don’t cry, okay? Isn’t it just a top ten ranking? Why care so much about a stupid, empty title?”

“What do you know!” Jin Ling’er yelled. “If you can enter the top 10, you will be considered a seedling with great potential, and you will gain many additional benefits in the Hidden Dragon Institute.”

“Additional benefits?” Su Chen was stunned. “Like what?”

“There’s so many... access to the best cultivation grounds, the authority to borrow books from the main library, preferential treatment from the teachers who will even give you pointers, and so much more. Many of these privileges are only for the seedlings of the institute. Why else would I try so hard? If all I wanted was to enter the Hidden Dragon Institute, I could’ve stopped fighting a long time ago. But none of it matters anymore since I ran into you. You’re clearly weaker than me, yet I lost. I lost to you and you took my future status as seedling!” Jin Ling’er said, feeling more and more wronged.

If someone stronger came along and beat her black and blue, she could accept it. But Su Chen was weaker than her, and could only achieve victory by deploying dirty tricks. It would be odd if she wasn’t upset about this.

“So that’s how it is.” Su Chen rubbed his chin.

Su Chen didn’t care all that much about where he cultivated. With his eyes, which could see Origin Energy, he did not need many cultivation resources. However, access to the institute’s large library was crucial to him.

In this world, knowledge was extremely valuable. For every piece of information, a large sum would have to be paid.

Rumor had it that the Hidden Dragon Institutes’ library had the largest collection of books in the entire Long Sang country. Not only did it possess all kinds of Origin Skills and absorption techniques, there was also vast amounts of precious information.

The books were hidden behind the walls of the library. If you couldn’t enter, you couldn’t read. So getting access was vital to Su Chen.

Su Chen didn’t know which tier of access the top 10 seedlings would obtain, but if this was a shortcut to obtain at least some level of access, he definitely needed to fight for it.

At least, that was before. Now it seemed he already had enough points to make the top 10.

Su Chen already had a grand total of 587 points after defeating both Jin Ling’er and Pan Yue.

Su Chen didn’t quite know what this number implied, but he figured it was at least enough to put him in the top 10.

He only needed to perform some simple math to determine this.

Around 10,000 students participated in the exam, and each candidate started with three points, meaning there were about 30,000 points. When incorporating the points for killing Vicious Beasts, the total number probably didn’t exceed 50,000.

If 10 people had the number of points Su Chen did, they would make up for about a tenth of the total points in play.

Thus, Su Chen’s ranking definitely was not low. If he was ranked 50th, then the top 100 would have 500 points on average. 100 people would share all the points.

This train of thought was definitely a viable possibility, but based on how many exam candidates he had met along the way, there were probably more left. He reckoned it was even possible for there to be over 1000 exam candidates still in the exam grounds.

With so many people still fighting for the spots, the exam candidates at the front of the ranking would not possess an abnormal number of points. The top 10 Jing Ling’er told him about was probably not too steep of a mountain for him to climb.

In the end, Su Chen could only make such estimations. The Hidden Dragon Institute only told candidates their number of points, not their ranking. No one knew where they stood on the leaderboards, so no one dared to slack off. This was their goal. They didn’t wish for the participants to be satisfied with their rankings and grow lazy.

Originally, Su Chen had set his eyes on one of the four spots allocated to Northface City. But after hearing this new information, there was no way he would be satisfied with his original goals any longer. His eyes were set on the top 10! Luckily, he obtained many points during his chase after Pan Yue.

Su Chen finished running the calculations and said, “Do you want to be in the top ten?”

Jin Ling’er gazed at him with watery eyes. “Are you kidding me?”

“I can help you,” Su Chen explained.

“Help me?” Jin Ling’er was speechless. “How would you help me?”

“We can team up,” Su Chen said. “Don’t you need someone to control? I’ll be that person. How about it?”

“What...?” Jin Ling’er was dumbfounded.